6
The Commoner.
VOLUME 9r NUMBER 50
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SEEING BY WIRE is the next thing in order.
A Paris cablegram to the New York World
says: "Two Frenchmen have invented an ap
paratus for transmitting by wire the reflected
likenesses of persons standing at either end, en
abling people talking over a telephone to see
as well as hear each other. The inventors are
G. Bignoux and M. Fournier, both well known
for research. The picture is transmitted by light
waves over the wires, just as sound waves are
transmitted. Three thousand candle-power elec
tric light is projected by a mirror on the object
to be portrayed. Sixty-four wires are needed
for this purpose, but to have moving pictures
4,000 wires will be necessary. The experimen
ters say they have succeeded in transmitting
likenesses and expect their invention will be in
practical working order in a few months. It Is "
even asserted that it will be possible to transmit
pictures in natural colors;"
REFERRING TO THIS cablegram the World
adds: "The problem of 'seeing by wire'
has engaged the attention of scientists and tele
graphic experts almost ever since the telephone
was made practical. From time to time an
nouncement has been made that the problem
was solved, but nothing useful has been pro
duced. A press dispatch from Mexico City less
than three months ago reported that Alberto
Sanchez, an electrical engineer, had invented a
'teleradiopticon' which would transmit vision as
well as voice over an ordinary telephone wire.
The apparatus resembled a short opera glass
attached to a battery, and it was declared by per
sons who witnessed them that the tests were
successful. It was even averred recently that a
means had been discovered of transmitting pic
tures "by wireless." ' ' ''- ",
' TTTTIXT T1TTY7I C3mlTiTJ" i JX L J - -. t
I v-im-y axiiii ojhjevxv in iu tores teu m ur. JOn
2j nesCO'S Stovaine and strvchnirm JinrmsfhoHo
A writer in the New York World says: "This
morning there flutters out of Manhattan and
across Jersey to the city of Penn a wondrous
bird. It flutters on noiseless, nerveless, painless
wings, for it accompanies the Roumanian scien
tist, Prof. Thomas Jonnesco. It is the same old
Btork that all humanity has known for all time
and that President Roosevelt feared was going
out of business in America, but it has a new
name. Its name is Stovaine. On"last 'Thursday
morning the World told how Prof. Jonnesco
had said In the Post-Graduate hospital that when
the new stork went to a home his flight was
rapid and was a 'blessing to motherhood.' Yes
terday at the Hotel Knickerbocker Prof. Jon
nesco confirmed this statement. 'I am confi
dent,' said he, 'that it is destined to bring joy
Into millions of homes where now the alighting
of that sacred bird that you Americans call the
stork brings sometimes sorrow and anguish.'
Nowhere did the announcement that the new
anaesthetic was as useful in childbirth as in any
surgical operation, create more discussion than
at Bellevue, that great center of suffering and
Borrow. All the surgeons had read that, in the
Post-Graduate and other hospitals, men had un
dergone difficult operations fully conscious after
stovaine had been injected; but that stovaine
would remove the dread that hangs over the
lives of so many women was a surprise. In fact,
there seemed to be doubt about the advisability
of trying the new anaesthetic in maternity wards
until it had been thoroughly tried and approved
elsewhere."
ONE SURGEON, speaking to the World rep
resentative, said: "Pain has always been
considered a necessary adjunct to the initiation
into life of new candidates. I am not sure that
it is not still so. Certainly the mortality In
operations where stovaine has been used re
sulting from after effects and shock, has been
greater than in those cases where ether and
chloroform are used. I think that Dr. Woods
Hutchinson sized up the new anaesthetic right
ly. He pointed out that, although Dr. Jonnesco's
paper asserted that nausea occurs in only two
per cent of cases, three of the four cases in one
day showed signs of nausea. Dr. Jonnesco said
that the pulse is usually normal in rapidity and
strength. In two of the four patients that were
operated on hero it was markedly weak.' Dr.
Hooker in Bellevue was of the opinion that, if
all that was claimed for the new stork was true,
it would certainly take race suicide out of the
possible campaign planks of political parties and
be a source of happiness to millions of homes.
Ho said it had not been tried in the Bellevue
maternity ward. At the Maternity hospital of
the Lying-in Society, the superintendent smiled
slightly at the idea of changing the name of the
faithful old bird that for so many years has built
his nest on the high roof of the building, but
said that if all claimed for stovaine were true
no one would be more enthusiastic than the doc
tors in his and kindred Institutions. Dr. Wil
liam L. Keene, of Chicago, who came to New
York to attend the operations where stovaine
was used, said: 'I was surprised when Dr.
Jonnesco paused in an operation to say, 'In
cases of childbirth stovaine decreases the dis
comfort of the patient and increases the rapid
ity with which the new citizen enters the world.'
I had been carefully watching the young men
under the effects of the anaesthetic and I had
noticed that, though they smiled and talked with
the doctors operating on them, they did not
move their bodies or legs below the center of
the back. That gave me the impression that
their bodies were paralyzed below the point of
injection. I had thought of the blessing of sto
vaine to motherhood, but this discouraged me
in the thought that it might be useful in that
way. But when a young man who had given a
history of epilepsy was being operated on I no
ticed that, while he suffered pain, his body was
not entirely paralyzed, for his feet moved spas
modically. Now the er flight of the stork is
automatic, and does not depend upon conscious
ness. Therefore Prof. Jonnesco's claim may
easily be true, in which case we are at the dawn
of the transformation of one of earth's saddest
hours Into one of comfort and happiness for the
one most concerned.' "
DR. CARLTON SIMON, who is credited with
having discovered the sleep center in the
brain, was optimistic about the benefit to wom
anhood. "Injections into the spine have caused
a great deal of interest in the last few years,"
he said, "because of the peculiar and in some
instances brilliant results. ..Undoubtedly the ex
periments that are now being made in the" great
laboratories of the world will bring forth even
more startling wonders than those recently an
nounced by Dr. Jonnesco. In these great experi
ments it stands to reason that attention will be
paid to the alleviating of those tragic hours in
the lives of the mothers of the race. Stovaine,
when injected into the spinal canal, affects all
the essential nerve centers below the cerebel
lum, which is the posterior part of the brain
and which does not affect or influence our con
sciousness. There can be no question but stov
aine is one of many hundreds of drugs that will
In the future be used in producing conscious
anaethesia. For the last few years many dis
eases have been treated successfully by injection
of fluid into the spinal canal and as well by the
removal of fluids that have gathered there and
which by compression produces a variety of
symptoms. The aim of the surgeon is to obtain
the maximum of result with the minimum of
danger to the patient and the mortality due to
general anaesthesia and shock and bad after ef
fects is one that has engaged the attention of
medical science for many years. Any step in the
right direction is welcomed by the scientific
world. If stovaine or any other remedial agent
may control the agonies of travail and be a
lethal agent in operations, a great blessing has
been showered on the human race and on moth
erhood in particular."
THE TORRENS registration of land titles is
valid in New York state. The New York
World says: "The constitutionality of the Tor
rens system of land title registration was upheld
yesterday in a unanimous decision of the ap
pellate division of the supreme court, Brooklyn
The case, the first brought In the state to test
the Torrens law, will be taken to the court of
appeals. Thomas Duffy bought the house and
lot, No. 113 Decatur street, Brooklyn, and en
gaged ex-Assemblyman M. E. Finnegan, an offl
cial title examiner under the Torrens law, to
register the title under the new system. One
of the former owners and neighbors who have
interest in the property under a restriction cove
nant affecting the block objected. Mr. Finnegan
brought for Mr. Duffy the suit in which yester
day's decision was rendered. Mr. Finnegan has
been a real estate lawyer forty-two years, and
when an assemblyman in 1894 was instrumental
in having the block system of registering titles
established. He is greatly pleased with the de
cision, and is confident that it will be sustained
by the higher court. 'I anticipate the general
adoption of 'the Torrens system. in the near fu
ture throughout the state, he said yesterday.
'The system can be put generally in operation
within a year, and then the expense of repeated
searches whenever property changes hands will
be a thing of the past, as, when a title is once
registered the owner receives a certificate of
ownership, which will be as negotiable as a dol
lar bill, provided a simple record is made when
ever it changes hands.' "
STATE BANK Commissioner A. G. Young of
Oklahoma has issued a statement relating
to the banks of his state. According to this
statement the condition of the 662 state banks
of Oklahoma on November 16 showed an in
crease in individual deposits of $4,998,173 in
comparison with the September 1 report, and
an increase of $7,062,505 over the report made
on June 23. This is the greatest gain shown in
any statement since the state guaranty law be
came effective. According to the report made
Monday by the controller of the currency on
the condition of the national banks of Oklahoma
there was a loss of $700,000 in individual de
posits from September 1 to November 15. The
state banks, according to the state report, have
made a gain of 6.2 per cent in the average re
servo for the seventy-five day period referred to
bringing the reserve up to 49.7 per cent, which
is .the highest average ever shown by a state
ment of the Oklahoma banks. The total depos
its in state banks on November 16 amounted to
$49,775,433, or an increase of $20,500,000 in
one year, or of $31,000,000 since the guaranty
law became effective, twenty-one months ago.
A gain of sixteen new state banks is shown since
September 1, fivo of which are converted na
tional banks. Keifer, Okla., Dec. 15. Every
depositor of the First State bank of Keifer,
which cl6sed yesterday as a result of the failure
of the Farmers bank, of Tulsa, who demanded
his money today, was paid in full. Only a few
depositors demanded their money. The deposit
ors are protected, by the state guaranty law.
THE APPOINTMENT of Judge Lurton to the
United States supreme bench is only an
other indication of the small influence which
republican reformers have with the Taft admin
istration. The Omaha World-Herald says: "In
the appointment of Judge Lurton of Tennessee
to the supreme bench President Taft has
strengthened what might be called the conserva
tive element of the court and weakened the
liberal element. On October 29, the Philadel
phia' North American, the largest progressive
republican newspaper in the country, published
prominently on its first page an attack on Judge
Lurton as an 'ally of corporations.' Among
other things the North American said: 'From
the standpoint of the progressive republicans
nothing Mr. Taft could do, not even his con
tinued alliance with the Aldrlch-Cannon com
bination, could prove so effectively reactionary
as would the appointment of Judge Lurton to
succeed the late Justice Peckham. Tne
general charge is that Judge Lurton has shown
himself, In all his decisions, to be so partial
to corporations, and so absolutely unwilling
to consider tho rights of the public in any con
test between the public and the corporations,
that his appointment would be regarded as an
effort to pack the court in favor of the great
combinations- of wealth. Those who od
ject to the prospective appointment of JudJv
Lurton declare that Lurton has made it niaw
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